Diane Lourdes Dick
Overview
Diane Lourdes Dick is the Charles E. Floete Distinguished Chair of Law and Professor at the University of Iowa College of Law. Her teaching and scholarship focus on business bankruptcy and restructuring, commercial finance, corporate governance, taxation, and questions involving data, artificial intelligence, and digital assets.
Professor Dick's scholarship examines how legal rules allocate value, power, and risk in financially distressed firms and markets. Her recent work includes The Redemptive Grammar of Bankruptcy Law (forthcoming in the Iowa Law Review), Debt Tokens (University of Pennsylvania Law Review), Tactical Restructurings (Fordham Law Review), and Hostile Restructurings (Washington Law Review), along with co-authored work on data and technology governance. Her scholarship has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and federal appellate courts, and she is a frequent source for national media on bankruptcy and financial distress.
At Iowa Law, Professor Dick teaches across the business law curriculum, including corporate finance, debtor-creditor law, bankruptcy, secured transactions, and federal individual and business entity income taxation. She also serves as a Faculty Fellow of the Innovation, Business and Law Center. Before joining Iowa Law in 2022, she was the William C. Oltman Professor of Teaching Excellence and Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law.
Professor Dick is active in the bench and bar as well as the academy. She serves as Academic Reporter for the Dodd-Frank Study Group of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and on the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Creditors' and Debtors' Rights. She is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and serves on its Diversity Committee.
Research areas
- Business bankruptcy, corporate restructuring, and insolvency
- Commercial finance, secured transactions, and debtor-creditor law
- Corporate governance and business organizations
- Data governance, artificial intelligence, and digital assets
- Federal income taxation and business entity taxation
Teaching areas
- Bankruptcy and Debtor-Creditor Law
- Corporate Finance
- Secured Transactions
- Individual Income Taxation
- Corporate and Partnership Taxation
Professional affiliations and memberships
- Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Dodd-Frank Study Group - Academic Reporter (2019-present)
- AALS Section on Creditors' & Debtors' Rights - Executive Committee (2021-present)
- American College of Bankruptcy - Diversity Committee
- Admitted to practice in Washington, the District of Columbia, and Florida
Awards and honors
- Charles E. Floete Distinguished Chair of Law, University of Iowa (2026-present)
- Fellow, American College of Bankruptcy (2025)
